Dragons of Waverly Place
by Lacto3.1415
Summary: "Wizards are now not, underworld dragons should fill their slots." When Max finds this spell in the lair, he performs it on himself and his siblings, thinking it was written just for study purposes. It works, but not in the way any of the wizards would ever expect. They are all transported into a foreign world where trouble abounds. Will they ever be able to get back home?
1. The Mysterious Spell

**A/N**: So, one day I decided it would be really cool if the wizards characters were dragons. And this is what I've ended up coming up with...

This takes place right at the beginning of the first part of the final episode.

I don't own WoWP but I do own the original characters and world I've made up for this story.

Enjoy!

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Chapter One: Wizards Become Dragons

Professor Crumbs was sitting at a round table in a room with several members of the wizard council. All were dressed in their normal wizard robes and each of them had small notepads and special wizardry pens. They were discussing wizard competitions and what to do with WizTech's newest students when a wizard burst into the room, holding a crystal ball.

"You're not going to believe this," she said, panting as she took the crystal ball over to the table and placed it in the middle, "Alex Russo has just made her family a dinner…with no strings attached!"

Professor Crumbs and the other wizards watched in amazement as Alex spooned the spaghetti on plates for her family to feast on. It was a selfless act on her part, and the final requirement for the Russo family wizard competition to finally begin.

"I shall go tell them that the competition is to commence immediately," Professor Crumbs told the wizard council. The other wizards nodded, saying that they would take care of the rest of the business while he was gone.

Right when he was about to teleport to the Russo's living room, another wizard burst into the room. This wizard was panting even harder than the last one, his robes torn and singed at the edges, a burnt smell permeating throughout the room as he hurried over to the table.

"WizTech is being attacked again by that rogue group of dragons," he exclaimed, "we need your help to ward them off."

Normally it was the monster hunters who would deal with cases like this, but when most of the monster hunters were killed or maimed during their fights with those particular beasts, the wizard council had to intervene.

"I guess the Russos will have to wait," Professor Crumbs sighed. He and the other wizards hurried out of the room, pulling out their wands and teleporting themselves to the top of the school, ready to fight the dragons.

Meanwhile, the Russos back in their living room were happily munching away on the dinner Alex made. Justin was a bit hesitant, still assuming that Alex had an evil plan cooked up. He just knew she was going to unleash chaos once they were done with the meal.

"Justin, please eat your food before it gets cold," Theresa said, "it's…surprisingly good."

Justin looked over at Theresa incredulously before taking a taste of the pasta. Alex grinned as Justin swallowed the food.

"What did you do to this?" he asked.

"Nothing," Alex said in the most innocent voice she could conjure up, "you're just very amusing to look at, that's all."

Justin grudgingly ate the rest of his meal, warily looking at Alex, trying to anticipate what his sister would do next. Max was the first to finish and loudly announced that he would go down to the lair to rest.

"And I don't want any distractions this time," he said, "I really do need everything to be quiet while I do my experiment."

"Yeah, yeah, that's great, just go, Max," Alex said.

"Don't forget to finish your homework," Theresa called out as Max headed down the staircase to the lair.

When he entered, he walked around the room, gathering the materials he needed for his next experiment. Doing experiments was not only fun but it helped him practice and memorize spells.

As he placed everything on one of the tables, he noticed a large piece of paper with something written in very large letters:

_Wizards are now not, underworld dragons should fill their slots._

"Wizards and underworld dragons?" he asked aloud, "hey, I'm a wizard. Does that mean I came become an underworld dragon? Cool."

Not even bothering to question who wrote the spell or why it was even on the table, Max started saying the spell to try it on himself. Halfway through he stopped, deciding it would be funner if Justin and Alex could join him. They could have an epic dragon fight.

He started heading over to the door, but then stopped. It would be easier to just try and find a spell to transport them to the lair.

Not that he could think of one of the top his head.

He headed over to the podium and started flipping through the pages of the spell book, shaking his head every time he came across a spell that wouldn't help him.

The door slammed shut and Alex walked in, hoping to catch Max in the middle of his experiment. When she found him reading the spell book, she walked over and looked over his shoulder curiously.

"Whatcha looking up?"

Max started, turning around to face Alex. "Oh, Alex. I was just trying to find a spell to get you and Justin here."

"Why?"

Max walked over to the table and grabbed the sheet of paper with the spell on it. After handing it to Alex, he said, "I found this spell and was wanting to see if it would work."

After reading it, Alex smiled. "It's one of those open-ended spells, so why wouldn't it? At least I think it is."

"Wanna try it out on just us two?"

Max took out his wand and started reciting the spell, but Alex stopped him. "Wait, we should totally get Justin and then turn into dragons right in front of him. He would totally freak."

Before Max could reply, Alex raced out the door to retrieve her brother. She found Justin studying in his room. Putting on her best panicked face, she raced up to him and tugged on his arm.

"Justin, come quick, Max is doing a very dangerous experiment and we need to stop him," she exclaimed.

Justin needed no further prompting, immediately getting up and racing down towards the lair. Alex was hot on his heels, trying her hardest to look as serious as she could.

Justin burst into the lair, yelling out to Max to stop what he was doing. Max was standing by the podium, wand in hand as he was reading the spell over and over. He startled when his siblings entered.

Before Max could say anything, Alex ran towards his side, "I had to get Justin here and I figured the best way was to scare him. Do it now!"

"What's going on here?" Justin asked, glaring at Alex.

"I found a spell on a table and would like to try it out on me and Alex," Max explained, placing the paper down, "okay, here we go."

As Max started saying the spell, pointing the wand between himself and Alex, Justin quickly snatched up the paper and read the spell.

"Max, I don't think—"

The energy shot out from the wand, encompassing Max and Alex. A figure hiding behind a chair nearby suddenly rose and a bright light suddenly shown from a small disc he was holding, nearly blinding the three siblings.

Explosions started erupting randomly throughout the room, the strange light reacting with the wizard energy and forming whirlwinds of light and energy around the wizards and the stranger.

They all starting changing their shapes from humans to dragons. Normally wizard spells would make the process very quick and painless. But this time, something was wrong. Very wrong.

"What's going on?" Alex yelled, nearly doubling over when a sudden pain surged through her body.

The magic started a permanent transformation. Complete realignment of the skeletal structure. The addition of an extra set of limbs. Wizard magic alone wouldn't do this.

"I don't…know," Justin managed, clenching his jaw, "but this isn't normal magic."

The scenery around them started changing, the furniture and portal becoming less and less visible. Tall trees started sprouting through the carpet, quickly growing and breaking through the disappearing ceiling.

As the room completely vanished, a vast forest took its place, the scents of pine permeating the air as a cool breeze brushed across the the Russos' bodies. They could feel the cool earth beneath them, their tails and wings brushing up against branches and undergrowth as their transformations were finally completed.

Justin had closed his eyes during the transformation. When it was over, he opened his eyes and looked around.

"Max," he said, "what…just happened?"

Instead of seeing his two siblings standing before him, Justin noticed two large dragons in their places, looking around the woods, seeming as confused as he felt. They ended up in a small clearing in a forest, barely enough room to hold all three of them within the confines of the wall of trees that surrounded them.

The three stared at each other for a few moments before Max finally spoke up, exclaiming, "it worked! It actually worked."

"Clearly, but where are we?" Alex asked.

"Welcome to my planet, folks!"

The three whipped their heads around and a green dragon emerged from the trees, stopping nearby. A large grin appeared on his face while the three Russos tried to identify his voice.

"I can't believe that actually worked," the dragon said, "I had no idea all three of you would be able to come here, but this is totally awesome, man!"

"Wait a minute…" Justin walked over to the other dragon, looking him up and down, "I know that voice all too well…Zeke?"

"Correct!" Zeke said.

"Seriously? What's going on, Zeke?"

"I was the one who wrote that spell," Zeke replied, "I know you didn't like me going in the lair and messing with everything, but I happened to find a spell that I thought would work! So I put on the table and was hoping one of you would come by and try it out. Didn't expect all three of you to be here, that's great."

"Wait, wait, wait," said Alex, "are you telling us you were a dragon this entire time?"

"I sure was," Zeke said, "isn't it awesome?"

Alex and Justin exchanged confused glances.

"And you didn't tell us this before?" Justin asked, deciding against questioning how that was even possible in the first place.

"Pssh, no. If I had said, 'hey guys, I'm actually a dragon!' would you have believed me?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Exactly! That's why I wanted to transform all of you into dragons so you could check out my world."

"So you really weren't just a mortal this entire time," said Alex, chuckling, "wait till Harper hears about that, she's going to freak."

"Well, we've checked it out long enough, so let's go back, Zeke," Justin said, looking expectantly at Zeke.

"What? You haven't been here for even five minutes," Zeke whined, "you need to stay for a while and check everything out."

"That's all fine and dandy Zeke, but uh, a bit of warning would have been nice, we have things to do back home," Justin said, looking around for his wand, "wait, where did my wand go?"

"Oh, I saw it fall off of you in the lair," Max said, "I accidentally dropped mine there too."

"I don't have mine either," Alex said, "that's weird."

"How are we going to get back to the lair now?" Justin asked.

"That's a very good question," Zeke said, "let me think about that."

Justin gave Zeke an incredulous look before looking around the area, narrowed his eyes and saying, "this place doesn't seem familiar. Are we even in the wizard world?"

"Nope," Zeke replied, "you're in a world far away. Apparently. Actually I don't know all the details but I'm pretty sure we aren't even near the wizard world. But we might be."

"Fantastic," Justin said, "that means we probably can't use any of our magic here either."

"How did you get to earth, then?" Alex asked Zeke.

"Oh, I have this little disc that has this awesome magic that can transport me to earth and turn me into a human," Zeke replied, "and here it—wait, where is it?"

As Zeke frantically looked around for the disc, Alex recited a few spells from memory, hoping that one of them would work. None of them did.

"Nope, we can't use magic here," she concluded.

"So let me get this straight, Zeke," Justin said, "you used some alien magic to combine with our wizard magic to send us to your planet where we can't use our magic but you can use yours?"

Zeke nodded. "That sounds about right. You know, I guess I should have thought ahead to how you guys could get back, but I was just so excited to hear you guys were wizards that I decided to find a way to show you my world because I was sure you wouldn't freak out because you're wizards and—"

"Wonderful!" Justin said sarcastically, "now we're stuck in a place with no magic with a guide who lost his only means of getting us back to earth. Way to go, Zeke."

"Hey, it's not entirely my fault!" Zeke protested, "I thought you guys could use your magic anywhere you went."

"Well, I dunno…if we actually had our wands we could try it out."

"Now, now, no need to get upset. I'm sure I can get a couple more of those discs and then send you guys back to earth. And hey, it's not my fault you guys dropped your wands."

"You're right, Zeke. This is all Alex's fault." Justin shifted his gaze to Alex.

"My fault?" asked Alex, "How is this _my_ fault?"

"If you hadn't thought it would be amusing to see Zeke become a magician and fail, forcing me to tell him about our wizardry, then he would never have known that we were wizards and wouldn't have invited us here to his world."

"Well…I…" Alex racked her brain, trying to come up with a retort. When she couldn't, she lamely said, "hey, would you look at that? We have wings now! We can totally have flying lessons and races."

"Flying lessons?" Max perked up, "Awesome, I'm going to start right now."

Justin sighed as he watched his brother flap his wings and try vainly to lift himself up in the air. He turned to Zeke and said, "so what can we do in the meantime? And please don't tell me flying lessons."

"Well, I am the right hand man to a king," Zeke said, "well, actually, dragon. Not man. We don't use those kinds of terms here."

"A king? Really?"

"Heck yes, Justin! In fact, the king is such a great guy, he might let you all stay at the castle and give us more discs. Pssh, why didn't I think of that earlier? I'm sure he has more than one, I mean, come on, what kind of dragon wouldn't have back up discs?"

"Lead the way, Zeke," Justin said, looking up at Max, "and come down, Max, we need to get going."

Max obliged, flying down and claiming there was nothing interesting beyond the tree tops anyways. Zeke lead the way through the forest, weaving through the trees and stomping all the undergrowth as he lead the others towards his king's castle.

Meanwhile, back in the Russo's home, Jerry and Theresa finished closing up the Sub Station and went to check on their children. After checking all their rooms and the rest of the house, they both went down to the lair.

Jerry stopped short when he entered the room, a puzzled look on his face.

"Why are all our kids' clothes ripped up on the floor?" he asked aloud, walking over and picking up Alex's wand, "and why are their wands on the floor?"

Theresa let out a loud, exasperated sigh. "What did they do _this_ time, Jerry?"

"I don't know," Jerry replied, slightly worried, "but whatever it was, they will probably have a hard time coming back."

"What do you mean?" Theresa asked, attempting to pick up the torn pieces of cloth from the floor and place them on the nearby table.

"Every one of their wands are here, they wouldn't leave them behind. Unless of course they used magic without their wands. But this doesn't make any sense."

"Are you saying they got kidnapped or something?" asked Theresa, concern starting to replacing her anger.

"I don't know," Jerry shrugged, "but I just hope they don't get in too much trouble."

"It looks like Alex is involved, so that may be a bit too much to ask for."

Suddenly a strong wind surged through the room, a small whirlwind forming nearby. A figure appeared in the wind, revealing the great Professor Crumbs.

He opened his mouth, ready to make the grand announcement that the Russo family wizard competition was about to commence, but he didn't see any of the Russo children anywhere.

"That's strange," he said, "they were here just a little while ago." He looked over at Jerry, noticing the man was holding the children's wands. "Did they get in trouble again?"

"We think so," Jerry replied, "I don't really know though. We came in here a few moments ago and all we saw were destroyed clothing and their wands on the floor."

Professor Crumbs frowned. "I just detected their presence here just five minutes ago or so. Could they have just disappeared?"

"Why are you here, professor?"

"I came by to announce that the Russos have finally completed their requirements for the family wizard competition with Alex performing an act out of kindness." He sighed before adding, "but I'm afraid the competition will have to wait now."

"They were just here?" asked Theresa, "did they know about the competition? Maybe they were trying to avoid it or something."

"They didn't know," the professor replied, "so let's try and gather evidence around here, maybe they left something behind to indicate where they went."

The two Russo parents nodded and searched the room for anything out of the ordinary. Jerry soon came across the piece of the paper with the spell written on it.

"Wizards are now not, underworld dragons should fill their slots," Jerry read aloud, handing the piece of paper over to the professor, "looks like they tried out a spell."

"Oh, are you serious? Dragons?" Theresa exclaimed, "Couldn't they pick something a little less dangerous to work with?"

"This was handwritten, but by whom?" asked the professor.

Theresa grabbed the paper and analyzed the handwriting. She had looked at her children's assignments over the years and was positive she could tell the difference between their writing styles.

The more she looked at it, the less familiar it became. "I don't recognize this, handwriting. Do you, Jerry?"

Jerry grabbed the paper and looked at it. "Huh. Come to think of it, it doesn't look like anything Alex, Justin, or Max would write."

"Well, if one of them didn't write it, who did?" Theresa asked.

"I'm afraid we may have a more sinister plot on our hands, Mr. and Mrs. Russo," Professor Crumbs concluded, "though I may be concluding this prematurely. I will go invite the wizard council here to see what they make of this situation. Meanwhile, I'd suggest you two look throughout the mortal world. Could be something completely benign, but I'd rather not take chances."

The two Russo parents nodded, heading towards the door while the professor took out his wand and teleported himself to the where the wizard council was.


	2. The King's Castle

**A/N**: Sooo, this is an extra long chapter. And it's only an update on the dragon-side of things 'cause I can't really figure out what to do next for the people back on earth xD

Enjoy!

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Chapter Two: King Vastren's Castle

The winds grew stronger and colder as the Russos and Zeke traveled on. Following Zeke's example, the three siblings pinned their wings close to the sides of their bodies, attempting to shield their bodies from the cold. Zeke lead them further and further on, hoping that he wasn't too panicked and lost the path to the castle along the way.

Max stayed by Zeke's side, bombarding the dragon with questions about the king and the castle. Justin looked around, noticing that the woods had become progressively deeper and a cool mist started coating the ground, obscuring all the life underneath. Alex trotted along, bored with the scenery and hoping something exciting would happen soon.

They arrived at the edge of the woods and entered onto a narrow stretch of barren land. A large ditch opened up several meters before them and a few hundred meters away stood a large castle on top of a large rock which descended down into the great abyss. The ditch surrounded the castle completely, no bridges or any way of getting to the castle by foot, preventing any non-flying creatures from getting there.

Many dragons flew to and from the castle, their dark outlines against the brightly lit sun peppering the sky. The wizards all looked on in awe while Zeke tried to explain where they were.

"Welcome to King Vastren's Castle!" Zeke exclaimed, "my king purposefully had it built on a rock in the middle of a big ditch so that he could get more privacy. It's harder for enemies to attack but easy enough for us dragons to get there."

"It looks precariously built," Justin noticed, "the rock it's standing on has cracks all along its side. The foundation is weak, so why would the king spend all this effort into building something that could collapse if there was an earthquake?"

Alex laughed. "Really Justin, you're analyzing the way it was built? Look at the beauty of it all. Oh, and look at all those powerful dragons. I bet they could kick your butt if they wanted to."

"I don't want to enter somewhere that could instantly fall apart, Alex," Justin replied, ignoring her last comment, "could the king possibly meet us out here?"

"Oh, no, the king prefers to stay inside," Zeke replied, "and it's a nice castle, I thought you would love to explore it."

"Well, I think it looks cool," Max shrugged, suddenly smiling, "hey, guys, I think we should have a race there."

"Awesome!" Alex said, bunching up her muscles, preparing for the great flight.

"Alright, on your mark, get set—" Max began.

"Wait, guys I think we should consider a different course of action before we just start flying towards a castle filled with a bunch of angry looking dragons we don't even know," Justin said.

"…go!" Max blurted out, instantly taking flight. Alex took off after him, the two of them flying as quickly as they could, albeit a bit clumsily, towards the castle's entrance. Justin let out an exasperated sigh.

"They're heading into danger," Justin said, "and who's going to have to help them? Me."

"Danger? Oh come on, Justin, it's excitement, not danger!" Zeke said, "And you've got me here, there's no need to worry."

"Joy."

"Like I said, the king is a great guy. Now let's go join your brother and sister!"

Justin watched Zeke fly off, effortlessly flapping his wings and quickly arriving at gate of the castle.

He sighed before bunching up his muscles and taking flight, trying to figure out how to use his wings. He awkwardly stumbled along in the air before figuring out how to properly flap his wings and ascend. Once he got the hang of it, he quickly arrived at the entrance, relieved to see Alex, Max, and Zeke waiting for him at the edge of the giant rock.

Alex yawned widely, saying, "that was a great race. You're last Justin."

"Alex got here first," Max said, "she's a natural at this flying thing."

"Come on, you two," an irritated Justin pushed himself forward, heading towards the gate of the castle, "let's just get this over with."

The walls of the castle were located several meters within the edge of the rock. They stood hundreds of meters high, several meters thick, with two large metal gates serving as the entrance. The metal bars of the gates formed numerous X-patterns with an abstract figure of a standing dragon on each door. Two muscular dragons stood guard at the bottom, eyeing the newcomers suspiciously.

"And who are you three?" one of them asked.

"They're wizards from another world," Zeke replied, pushing himself to the front, "and they're here to see King Vastren."

The guards exchanged a glance before returning their gazes to Zeke. "Okay," one of them said, "we'll let you pass."

The gates opened up, allowing the three dragons to walk in side by side, Zeke leading the way inside.

Inside the castle walls there were several large buildings among a sea of rocks and grass. The sun beat down on them through a transparent force field serving as a invisible ceiling above them, preventing an attack on the castle from above. They traveled along a stony path, heading towards a building straight ahead. The surrounding castle walls rose taller than any of the buildings protected within them.

Droplets of water splattered over the Russos as they walked along, a nearby bathing dragon carelessly shaking its body after emerging from a large pool. Zeke growled at the dragon, but it shrugged in reply, walking away from the group, not even curious to see who the newcomers were.

Zeke opened the large doors the central building and ushered the Russos in.

The three siblings walked in side by side, taking a look around at the new place. It was the throne room, decorated with the feathers, fur, and scales harvested from the animals the dragons ate over the years. It was fairly large and shaped like a square, one row of small windows lined up on all the walls, near the ceiling. A large hole in the ceiling above the giant throne near the back of the room let in all the sunlight and lit up the large dragon sitting on it like some sort of angel.

King Vastren was a large black dragon with dark gray scales and gray wing membranes. Long horns curved forward from the top of his head and his sharp yellow eyes gazed at the Russos curiously. His long, spiky tail thumped on the ground in anticipation.

Zeke started running towards the king, briefly stopping in front of the wizards to tell them to wait before heading back to the king. He stopped at the base of the throne and bowed before raising himself up and telling the king who he had brought in.

King Vastren gave Zeke a surprised look for a moment but then nodded approvingly at him. Zeke then leaped up on the throne and sat to the right side of the king.

"Welcome to my castle, young wizards," Vastren boomed out, getting the full attention of every dragon in sight, "I am King Vastren, the king of the dragons in this realm of Rackem."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, sir," Max said, stepping forward, "I have a few questions if you don't mind. First off, I—"

"Stand back," one of Vastren's guards near the base of the throne ordered, "the king doesn't like any dragon he doesn't know near his throne."

"Oh, okay," Max said stepping back next to Justin, "but first off, I would like to know—"

"Let me tell you everything before you say anything else," the King snapped, "This land is known as Rackem, the Dragon Underworld. All dragons within my realm must serve me in some way. All those who defy me are executed."

"Well that's certainly nice to know at the get-go," Alex said, "but you see, we aren't from around here and don't plan on staying too long."

"Yeah, you see, we're only here to visit for a short while," Justin put in, backing up a bit, "Zeke brought us here but dropped his disc back in our lair which he said would take us back there. We were wondering if—"

"You WHAT?" the king yelled, glaring at Zeke. Zeke cowered under the larger dragon's gaze.

"Accidentally dropped the disc," said Zeke, "in the lair." He stood upright and smiled. "But I told the Russos you would give me another one or two. Isn't that right, my king?"

The king looked at Zeke as though he said the most offensive thing ever. "You do realize that was the only one we have left in stock? And now you left it behind on another planet?"

Zeke's heart fell. "Wait, you never told me it was the last one! I thought there were a couple more of them."

"I told a gazillion times before you left, don't _ever_, under any circumstances, lose that disc!" the king growled.

"I thought you just said that because there were rare, not because there was only one," Zeke replied, exasperated.

"Wait, can't you guys just make another one?" Justin asked, "Use some magic or something?"

The king shook his head. "It's not just magically created, it requires very special materials that are very hard to get." He narrowed his gaze at his right-hand dragon. "And you shall be in charge of getting those materials."

Zeke blanched. "Again?"

"Again," the king echoed.

"Soooo, what are we going to do until then?" Alex asked, "'cause I'm getting kind of hungry here."

The king turned his gaze towards them and smiled. "All three of you look well-built. Why don't I give you assignments to keep you busy?"

Max's eyes widened. "Oh my God, we had assignments due? Why did nobody tell me this, I'm going to fail again."

"No, Max, we don't have assignments," Justin snapped, "but we really need to get back to our home planet. Are you sure there isn't another way to get there?"

"Well, there probably is. But I never said I was going to let you go back."

"What do you mean?"

The king turned to Zeke. "What reason did you tell them that I sent you to earth?"

"To explore it, of course," Zeke replied, looking proudly at the Russos, "the king found out about earth and that weird species called humans and he sent me there to check it out."

"I hadn't heard about the wizard world until Zeke came back and told me that he met some wizards," the king said, smiling, "and that intrigued me more than just earth and those humans."

"That's right!" Zeke said, "I've gone between here and earth several times and after I found out you all were actual wizards I was like, 'whoa! I must tell King Vastren!' and so I did. Then he said he wanted to meet you all because wizards sound awesome."

"Wait, wait, wait, how did you all find out about earth?" Justin asked, deciding to add, "and Zeke, we've been going to school together for a while, where did you even live?"

"Oh, we found out about it from someone powerful," Zeke said, "and I'll tell you more about my awesome double life later 'cause it's a bit complicated."

"Well, now that we've gotten that straightened out, I shall tell you what we'll do," King Vastren said, demanding the attention of the four dragons, "you three are trapped here, so I guess that makes you my prisoners. However, I don't like treating fellow dragons as mere prisoners, so I shall teach you the ways of our dragon society and in return you all shall give me information on this wizard world."

Justin and Alex exchanged confused glances. "And why would you want to know more?" asked Justin.

"Oh, just to see whether it's worth taking over or not," the king replied nonchalantly.

Justin's eyes widened but Alex just yawned. She said, "it really isn't worth it. So far away. Wizard magic is way overrated and completely weak. There have actually been several attempts to invade it before but we were able to handle them pretty easily."

"If wizard magic is so weak, how could you handle invasions easily?" the king asked.

"Because the invaders were weak?" Alex said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I don't believe you. The disc I gave to Zeke could only transport one individual from earth to Rackem and vice versa. All of you are here now apparently by the combination of the two magics and therefore this wizard magic strikes me as being powerful. I want to find out more information about this world and you three are going to help me."

"And what if we refuse?" asked Justin.

"Then I shall kill two of you," the king replied, "not all three. I don't think I could get any more wizards from Zeke."

"Oh, oh, which ones?" Max asked, "Because I'd like to know how much I'd have to save up for funeral costs when they occur."

Justin glared at Zeke, ignoring his little brother. "Really, Zeke? You got us into this big of a mess?" He turned his gaze towards the king, adding, "I'd recommend not killing any of us. Revenge shall be taken by the wizard council if you do."

"Wizard council? Zeke, write that down," King Vastren said, "everything they mention about the wizard world must be written down."

"I'm sorry, Justin," Zeke replied, mentally taking a note of the wizard council information, "but I can't disobey the king."

"So you just betray your friends instead?"

"I'm between a rock and hard place, here," replied Zeke, "didn't realize my king would be so interested in the wizard world."

"Only because it sounds like it's actually worth invading," the king said, narrowing his eyes at the three wizards, "and you better not give me wrong information on that place."

"Oh, hey, that's a great idea," Alex said, "I mean it's not like you'd be able to tell, anyway."

"That's enough," the king bellowed, "this isn't getting us anywhere. I shall assign you three to your tasks and that's that. No whining. No changing places. Just go with it."

"Wait a minute," Max said suddenly, eyeing the king suspiciously, "you know who he reminds me of? Evilini." Suddenly his eyes widened and he added, "oh no, do you think he's Evilini in dragon form?"

Justin sighed. "No, Max, if the king were Evilini he would already know that plastic is magic's worst enemy."

As soon as he said it, Justin chastised himself. The king smiled, clearly pleased with what he heard.

"Way to go, Justin," Alex said sarcastically, "what else are you going to tell this evil king?"

"That's exactly why I've brought you here," the king said, "and why I'm going to keep you here and give you assignments at my castle. You all would make perfect additions to my team when I take the wizard world over."

"I'm not going to help you take the wizard world over," Justin said defiantly, "I refuse."

"Dude, you just told the king magic's greatest weakness," Max pointed out, "you're already helping the dragon king. May as well just go with it."

"No!" Justin yelled back.

"Look, can we just let the king tell us our assignments?" Alex asked, "I'm getting sick of just sitting here bored to death at his lame speech."

The king growled. "Don't you dare call me boring and lame again."

"Could we please just discuss something…really quickly," Justin pleaded, "like, really quickly."

"You can discuss it when I send you to your living quarters," the king decided, ending that conversation.

He took a good look at the three Russos, deciding what exactly they should all do. Justin seemed like the most worthy opponent, the one most likely to go against the king's plans. Alex didn't seem to care much, but she did appear smart. And Max? He was staring off in the distance, not even bothering to pay attention to anyone.

"Well, then, red dragon," the king said, hoping to gain the attention of Max, "I'll have you work under Zeke."

Max didn't reply, instead keeping his focus on a small window in the wall. Justin prodded Max in the side, causing his brother to startle.

"What's going on?" Max asked.

"You're going to work with the traitor, apparently," Justin replied.

"Oh, the trader? That's cool, what are we going to trade?" Max asked, looking around at all the dragons, expecting an answer.

The king ignored this question. "Zeke is one of my most loyal dragons and I feel that he should watch over you three. However, I want you all to have…different experiences of what constitutes this dragon world so you all can really help me out when I attack the wizard world eventually. Zeke is an excellent blacksmith, in fact he's the one who made that disc…" he turned towards Zeke and growled, adding, "and stupidly left it on the other world."

Zeke just whimpered as the king continued, looking straight at Justin this time, "blue dragon, you are the biggest of the three. I'll have you work with Wajeeh, our army leader. I hope you're good at fighting."

Alex burst out laughing. "Justin? A fighter? Ha!"

"What? I'm good at fighting and you know it," Justin said.

"Against people as a wizard, not against dragons…as a dragon."

"So?"

"Purple dragon," the king continued, addressing Alex this time, "I'll have you work with Destanee, Wyne, and Zagir, three of our best dragon magicians."

"What?" Justin asked angrily, "Why don't I get to work with magic too? I'd much prefer that."

"Awww, is Justin a scaredey-dragon?" Alex poked Justin in the side, eliciting a low growl from him.

"No, Alex, I'm not scared," he replied, "I just think I would work better with magic. Didn't realize that was an option before."

"You know, he would be better at magic," Alex said, "but it's better we're separated so keep him with the army. It'll be fun to see him fail."

"Indeed it would be," the king nodded, "now, Zeke, take them to their living quarters. And after you lock them up I want to have a word with you."

Zeke nodded and started leading the three Russos towards a door behind the throne room.

"Tomorrow you shall all begin your training for me," the king announced as the four of them started heading off, "I expect the best from all of you."

Once they entered, Zeke started leading them through a hallway single-file. On the left side there were doors evenly spaced, no windows, just solid walls between them. One the right, lots of small candles were strewn near the ceiling, providing small amounts of light to illuminate the hallway. Eventually they arrived at a door which looked just like all the others: tall and long enough to fit one dragon exactly.

"Here we are," Zeke said, happily entering the room, "it may not look like much, but we dragons don't have as many possessions as you humans do, so we like to keep our places sparse."

It was a small room, big enough to fit only about half a dozen dragons comfortably. Along one side there was a bookcase extending the length of the wall and reaching up to the ceiling filled with books on dragon magic and Rackem history. Several large piles of furs and feathers were placed on the floor in the corners, serving as makeshift mattresses for the dragons. A single, small window barely large enough for a hawk-sized bird to enter was their only connection to the outside world. Sunlight shone through the window, but candles spread across the walls provided most of the light for the dragons.

Justin instantly walked over the books, reading all of the spines and determining which ones would be worth taking a look at. Alex shook her head at him, muttering a comment about him being "incredibly nerdy" before walking over and flopping on one of the feather and fur beds. Max hovered near the entrance, his gaze fixed on the small window in the room.

"Is anything wrong?" Zeke asked Max.

Max, who was staring out into space, snapped back to his thoughts and turned to the other dragon. "Oh, nothing. I was just wondering what I'm gong to be trading tomorrow."

"I think your brother meant traitor," Zeke said, looking hesitantly over at Justin, "and that would be me."

"Oh, traitor," Max said, shrugging before adding, "cool, when do we start?"

"Tomorrow. Like the king said. I'll come by whenever I wake up and show you what I do."

"What do you do, Zeke?" Justin asked, "Show dragons how they can betray their friends, too?"

"Hey, I'm on your side, man," Zeke replied, "I'm pretty powerless against the king but I'll try to get those materials as quick as I can so you all can get back to earth."

"Good," said Justin.

Max entered the room and looked at both Alex and Justin before deciding that Alex was doing something cooler and went over to flop on an unoccupied bed. Zeke walked in and locked the door behind them.

"Okay, so this is the plan," Zeke said, "I need to get those materials and I'll have Max help with that. You two just go along with your training and try not to get into too much trouble with your mentors. When Max and I get those materials, I'll make two more discs and then two of us can go to earth and one of us come back. Once all three of you are on earth, I'll just come back and give all the discs to the king. Easy as pie!"

"Only one teensy weensy problem with that," Justin said, "the king knows about us and will probably keep a watch on us, thereby preventing us from leaving. And besides we actually only need one more disc because you left one behind on earth and you could just grab that one."

"You know I didn't think of the other disc, but there's no guarantee we can find it. I'd rather make two."

"Yeah, and I'd suggest not handing either disc back to the king because he might send other dragons to earth to get us. Especially now that he knows we're powerless against plastic."

"Well, what else are we supposed to do?" asked Alex, "there's no other way back that we know of."

"And even if we did find another way, the king would be after you guys anyway," Zeke pointed out.

"So, essentially, we're screwed," Justin said.

"Not really," Zeke said, "you can do all kinds of research on this place and so when you go back to the wizard world you can warn them and prepare for the impending doom." He paused before adding, "but please don't have the wizards invade this place, it's my homeland."

A few moments of silence passed before Justin nodded. "Okay, that sounds like it could work. But if the king finds out about the discs, won't he kill us to prevent us from warning the wizard world?"

"Probably," Zeke said, "but my lips are sealed."

"Great, now it's time to do research," Justin said, gently trying to pry out a book from the shelf with his claws.

"I have to go now, but I'll be back to get Max tomorrow and then we can meet in the evening once you all are finished with your training sessions," Zeke said, leaving the room.

As Alex and Max started falling asleep on their beds, Justin finally released the book from the shelf and plopped it on the ground. He sat down and, careful not to tear any pages, he flipped through the book, hoping to find spells or any other useful information they could use.

"Rackem is the land of the dragons, named after the demigod who founded it," he said, reading the first chapter, "extending many miles in length, it occupies approximately ten thousand square miles. The outskirts of this land lead into desert territory which is occupied by other dragon kingdoms who operate differently than those in Rackem."

Alex groaned. "Oh, Justin, that's so boring, could you read it quietly?"

He continued reading on silently, learning about how the dragons use their magic and when Vastren's kingdom was formed. There was very little information about those dragon colonies outside of Rackem, but they were always referred to in negative terms. Justin shuddered, wondering how any place could get any worse than this one.

_It's okay_, he told himself, _we'll find a way out of this mess like we always do. It may take just a little longer without our wands but we should be fine._

He frowned when he remembered they didn't even have their wands. He decided to look for a book that could tell him more about the magic here, how they can get access to it and what kinds of spells they can perform.

The sun started setting, reducing the natural light entering the room. Alex and Max started falling deeper into their sleeps when they were suddenly interrupted by a panting Justin.

"I think I found the answer to our prayers," he declared, a big smile rising on his face.

Alex groaned, opening one eye to look at her brother while Max stayed asleep. The sudden burst of noise was not enough to rouse the younger sibling from his slumber.

"Justin, you could have told us this in the morning," Alex whined.

"Look, if this spell works, we can get back to earth and the wizard world and be fine," Justin replied excitedly, "and we can warn the wizard world and be the saviors once again!"

He looked off towards the window, fixing his gaze on the tiny forms of a distant patch of trees while he thought of Professor Crumbs and the members of the wizard council congratulating him on his bravery and quick thinking. With the help of his siblings he was able to save the wizard world from being invaded by Gorog, but this time he would get them all out of this mess and save them all from the potentially terrifying attack by a large group of hideous, dangerous dragons.

"Justin, whatever you're thinking, it's probably not going to happen," said Alex, standing up and stretching her limbs, "this better be good. You know that I don't like having my sleep disrupted."

Justin shook his head of his thoughts and looked around to where Max still lay asleep. He walked over and prodded his sleeping brother, saying, "Max, wake up. We have something important to discuss."

Still, the smaller dragon didn't wake up, just stayed there, lying almost as still as a rock. Justin frowned.

"Why don't you just leave him there?" Alex suggested, adding with a chuckle, "like we did that one time on Mars?"

Justin ignored Alex and tried to wake Max up again. This time it worked, an unhappy Max rising to his feet, looking terrified.

"What's going on?" he asked, his eyes widened as he gazed around the room, "is the wizard world being attacked?"

"No, Max, I found a spell and want to perform it," Justin said.

Max looked at Justin incredulously. "Justin last time I found a cool sounding spell and said it, we ended up here. How do you know this won't end up badly?"

"Because I found it and you didn't," Justin replied, though that thought did cross his mind. He knew he shouldn't be dabbling in foreign magic, but the more he read about this new world, the greater his desperation became to get out of here. He had no reason to trust the king would let them survive if they did give the king what he wanted. And considering the fact that Zeke was so easily able to get wizards to this underworld, Justin feared that other wizards around the world could fall into the same trap, the dragon king's army growing ever stronger and scarier every day. Even though they had some sort of plan, the sooner they could get out of this place, the better.

"Alright, so what's the spell?" asked an irritated Alex, still resting on her soft bed.

"It says this," Justin started, holding the book up and pointing one of his claws at the words, "take us from this world Kazeban, say the words and we'll be gone."

Alex looked around the room, half expecting it to just disappear before her eyes. When nothing happened, she let out a huge, deliberate yawn and said, "well, that didn't work. Nice try, Justin."

She flopped over again and started fake snoring loudly, eliciting a growl from Justin. "I need to perform this spell with a staff, not just say it."

"A staff?" Max asked, "What staff?"

"I don't have one, we need to get one," replied a frustrated Justin.

"Justin, we're locked in our room," Alex pointed out, "how are we supposed to get a staff?"

"Maybe there's one hidden in your bed," Justin suggested, pushing Alex aside while rummaging through the feathers and fur.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, look in your own bed, mister," Alex said, attempting to push Justin back.

After her attempt to move Justin failed, Alex finally decided to help her brother out, looking around the room for something that looked like a staff. It didn't take them long to search the entire place and they ended up empty-handed.

"Well, that was a bust," Alex said, heading over to fix up her bed, "guess we'll have to figure something out tomorrow."

_If we can_, Justin thought. The idea of being thrown into an army terrified him, especially dealing with dragons. Even though he was a monster hunter in the past, Alex did have a good point when she mentioned he was good with magic as a wizard, not in the body of a dragon without magic. Though he didn't want to let his siblings know of his fears, he couldn't convince himself that everything would turn out fine.

Soon he let sleep overcome him, joining his siblings in their slumber.


	3. Alex's First Training Day

**A/N**: Hey y'all. I went a drew a picture of Alex as a dragon for fun (hence the new icon). If you're interested, link's in my profile. :) And eventually I'll draw all the others too.

This chapter focuses entirely on Alex. Chapter 4 will focus on Justin and Chapter 5 on Max and Zeke.

And I'll probably (finally) update the earth/wizard world people in Chapter 6.

* * *

Chapter 3: Alex's First Training Day

Alex was the first to wake up, which was fairly unusual. She looked around and noticed her brothers sleeping, wondering if she should just go back to bed and wake up at a more normal time for her.

Sunlight streamed through the small window, hitting her resting spot directly. As she was basking in the warmth of the sun's rays, something prodded her from the back, causing her to jolt upright.

"It's time for your training," a dragon's voice whispered.

Alex yawned and stretched out slowly, still trying to process all the smells and sounds. She had remembered she wasn't back at home, but the assault of strange smells and sounds was still very foreign to her.

She followed the other dragon out, starting when the door slammed shut behind her. A staff was floating next to the other dragon and a bright light shot out of it, hitting both Alex and her mentor.

Alex shut her eyes against the bright lights and reopened them when they dimmed, finding herself at the front gate of the castle.

"Teleporting comes in handy," the other dragon said and Alex nodded sleepily, "but we should wake ourselves up by flying the rest of the way."

They lifted off and starting heading towards the forest beyond the castle. The calls of phoenixes and scurrying of vermin across the ground reached their ears as they flew through the forest, the dragons' presence causing a chain reaction of warning calls among the forest's prey animals. Soon they arrived at their destination, a small clearing in the woods where two other dragons were sitting.

Several books were laid neatly across the center of the clearing and a staff was propped up against a tree nearby. As Alex and the other dragon settled, down, the two dragons already there glanced at Alex curiously, looking like they would love to ask her questions, but decided to wait for their leader's commands.

The dragon who brought her to the clearing said, "I'm Destanee and these two are Wyne and Zagir."

"Nice to meet you," Alex said in the most pleasant voice she could conjure up. The two dragons stared at her blankly, not bothering to offer their own greetings.

"Okay, so today you will learn the very basics about dragon magic," Destanee said, "the magic we use is essentially dealing with the patterns of energy particles that are dispersed randomly in the air but can be combined together with the use of thermal energy in the form of bright lights which are emitted from our staffs. Normally heat will separate the energy but this form of energy prefers higher temperatures and will actually condense, allowing us to perform whatever magic we have desired attached to a spell which we say either out loud or in our heads."

Alex frowned. "English, please? You sound just like Justin when he's in one of his nerd modes." She chuckled before adding, "well, that's actually all the time."

"Essentially we just say a spell with the right words and use the staff to perform the magic," Wyne said, "but first you need to learn how to use the magic within you."

"Okay," said Alex, "sounds just like wizard magic and wands. Sounds easy enough."

"On every dragon's head there is a pair of horns from which we can conjure up a bit of telekinetic magic which, when aimed at the desired object, will lift up that object and allow us to use it," Destanee continued, "we can't carry staffs except in our mouths and that's very inefficient so we just use telekinesis to lift them up and use them."

"Oh, yeah, we don't have opposable thumbs," Alex said, frowning before adding, "well, this is going to be harder than I thought."

"Just try it, it's not so bad once you get used to it," said Zagir, "it's quite fun, actually."

Zagir demonstrated the point, staring straight at the staff leaning against the tree. Once he concentrated enough, a bright light shone from his horns and hit the staff, causing energy to surround it and lift it up. The brightness reduced but the object still remained in the air, the dragon's eyes still on it.

"See? Nothing to it," he said.

"You have to stare at the stupid staff the entire time in order to use it?" Alex asked, "How can you see what's going on otherwise?"

"Oh, you don't," Zagir said, turning his gaze towards Alex, "you can see through the object's 'eyes' and move it around. It's like a picture in your mind when you just sit somewhere and about something. You know, that picture that comes in your mind?"

"So essentially you dragons have to stare out into space while doing magic?" Alex asked, flopping over on her side, "this is too much to handle. I want my old wand back."

"Do you want to learn dragon magic or not?" Destanee snapped, "We could just kill you on the spot."

"Sure, why don't you just kill me now and send the funeral bills to Justin?" Alex asked.

"That's not funny, just try out your innate dragon magic."

_Innate dragon magic? Well, that sounds kind of neat_, thought Alex. Deciding to give it a try, she stared at the staff and was waiting for the energy to just surge out of her suddenly like water from a high-pressure busted pipe. When nothing happened, she asked them exactly how to do it.

The energy from within the body was dictated by the dragon's imagination. Similar to some spells of wizardry where the wizard would think of something to transform an object into a different desired object—Alex remembered learning that on the day of the Crazy 10 Minute Sale—the dragon would have to think about the energy building up in their head horns in order for it to actually occur. And the eyes would be the ones to tell the energy where to go, though energy could certainly burst out of horns even if there is no object in focus.

As Destanee explained, "telekinetic magic just an intrinsic part of you that needs to be mastered. An innate ability that, when you access it, you can develop over time like the ability to fight or controlling your emotions in a fight or flight situation."

Alex fixed her gaze again on the weapon which was now lying on the ground near her feet. She tried to imagine energy surging through her body the best she could. She remembered that she could perform spells without the use of her wand and that required some concentration. So maybe this wasn't that much different.

After a few moments, Alex's intent gaze on the staff caused everything around the object to become blurry, making the weapon the only thing that came into focus. A strange surge of energy pulsed through her body, merging towards her head and gathering in her horns. When there was sufficient enough energy present, it burst forth and headed directly towards the staff.

The staff rose with the added energy and hovered in the air, staying the primary focus of Alex's vision. The surroundings slowly started coming into focus too, but Alex kept her gaze intent on the staff.

"Nice job," Destanee complimented, looking truly impressed, "got it on your first try. Though I guess I shouldn't be too surprised seeing as you have worked with magic before."

"And when can I see through the 'eyes' of the staff?" Alex asked, the whole idea of having an extra set of eyes through an object seeming like the most silly thing she's ever heard.

"When your vision gets back to normal," said Zagir.

When Alex's vision became normal again, she could see a different picture in addition to what her eyes gathered. The other image was in the back of her mind as if it was just a thought. Dragons preferred not to have their main vision impeded by an object, so they developed the magic so that it wouldn't interfere too strongly with what they could normally see.

Alex focused on the object's image and thought about it moving around. The object moved at his command as if it had muscles connected to Alex's thoughts. Alex smiled.

"I think I'm going to actually like this magic," Alex beamed, "wait till I show Justin this, he's gonna be so jealous."

Alex started swinging the staff around, merrily watching as it flipped in the air and banged against the trees and branches. The other dragons just stood there impatiently until the staff "accidentally" hit Wyne in the head.

"Hey," Wyne growled, "don't swing staffs around like a maniac, they aren't unbreakable."

"Sorry," Alex said, though fairly unapologetic. She placed the staff on the ground and looked expectantly at Destanee.

"Now that you know that basic part of dragon magic, you need to learn some different spells," the dragon said, "we write and say our spells in rhymes because it's easier for us to memorize them that way."

"Really? That's how wizards do it too," Alex said, "you know I think I'm actually going to like this dragon magic."

"Wizardry uses rhymes too," Zagir said, "I'll take note of that and tell the king."

"I would think that Zeke would have already told you," Alex pointed out, "but whatever, where are these awesome dragon spells?"

They pointed to the books on the ground and, after trying to pry one of them open with her claws, Alex decided instead to use her magic to lift the books up to read them. It worked very well, though she had to bring the books extremely close to her eyes in order to read the tiny print.

"Why is this written so small?" Alex whined, "It's so hard to read."

"Once you memorize them you won't need to read them," Destanee said.

"So how many will I need to memorize?"

"Just a few. The ones near the front of the book are the simplest and least dangerous to perform so try a few of those."

Alex rebelliously turned the book to the last chapter, looking up the most powerful and dangerous spells. The other dragons were talking about having a break when Alex came across the name "Kazeban" written in nearly every spell.

"Who's Kazeban?" Alex asked, remembering hearing Justin mention that name when he tried that spell on them last night, "and why does he have the privilege of being called upon? Heck, even professor Crumbs doesn't have that."

"He's the almighty powerful demigod that rules over Rackem," Wyne explained, "and why are you looking near the back? We told you to look in the front."

"You can't blame me for being curious," Alex said, secretly deciding to try and look for this Kazeban demigod, "but I thought Rackem was the name of the demigod. Or at least that's what Justin said."

"Kazeban Rackem," Wyne said, "is his full name."

"Where can I find him?" asked a hopeful Alex.

"Nice try, but we aren't going to tell you," Destanee said, "it's too dangerous. Not that we care whether you live or die, but we don't want to feel the demigod's wrath."

_Note to self, make the demigod mad_, Alex smiled to herself. She certainly wasn't fond of being killed by the demigod, but she would just love to annoy the powerful beast enough to see him unleash his fury on all the smaller, less powerful dragons.

How powerful could Kazeban be? If Alex could find a way to turn him against these other dragons, she could potentially reduce their army size so much that these dragons wouldn't be able to take over the wizard world after all.

_Note to self, discuss new plan with brothers and then do it anyway if they disprove_, thought Alex.

The other dragons looked at her suspiciously, the large grin on her face belying the fact that she was up to no good. Still, they decided not to press the matter, the pangs of hunger getting to them. Destanee announced they were all to go out and hunt for a break and then meet back at the clearing soon.

Alex shook her head of her thoughts and stared blankly at the others. "Hunt? I don't know how to hunt as a dragon."

"You're smart, figure it out," Destanee said, heading off into the woods. The other two looked at Alex unsympathetically, heading out to follow their leader. Alex just shrugged and studied the spells near the back of the book, ignoring her own hunger pains and divulging in her curiosity.

Back home she would memorize spells by making them into songs. She read a few of the spells out loud, wondering which words to take out and what kind of tune she would use.

"Kazeban, protect me from death, prevent me from breathing my very last breath," she said aloud.

That could be useful, a resurrection spell. She looked at the next one on the page.

"At Kazeban's grace no eye shall notice me as I travel though Rackem and wander around free."

An invisibility spell. Her eyes started drooping as she read the other spells, her mind suddenly going blank when she tried to come up with a tune. She shook her head and decided to try hunting instead of reading, which was one of her least favorite activities in the first place.

It didn't take her too long to find and kill a deer. It was surprisingly easy to catch an already dead deer which wyverns were trying to feast on. Alex was prepared for an awesome fight the smaller reptiles, but when they first caught sight of her, they ran. Although a bit disappointed, she enjoyed the meal, being reminded of all the raw meat and other good stuff at the holiday feast with Mason's family that one time.

She headed back to the clearing and, because no one else was there yet, she settled down to look at the book again. Deciding it would be better to memorize simpler spells because the dragons may quiz her on them, she turned to the first chapter.

"Flying is a burden, of that I am certain, teleport me away to…" said Alex aloud, noticing that the ending was left blank, leaving the one saying the spell to fill it in with whatever destination they desired.

"…Earth!" Alex blurted out, hoping that that would do the trick. It didn't work. Instead she stayed put in the clearing.

"Well, it was a worth a try," she said, gazing back down at the book. The other dragons finally came back from their hunts and asked what she was doing.

"Practicing spells," Alex said, looking down to quickly try and memorize another simple spell.

"Good, we'd like to see you try a couple of them," said Destanee, looking at Alex expectantly, "go on."

"Um, well, I did try one but that sure as heck didn't work," Alex replied.

"Which one?"

"That teleportation spell. 'Flying is a burden, of that I am certain, teleport me away too…"

"You can only teleport to places within Rackem."

"Oh."

"Try again. Maybe the castle? And you need to imagine the place like you imagined the energy channeling through your body."

Alex closed her eyes and tried to imagine the castle the best she could. She chose the small room she was ordered to stay at, its picture forming in her mind. The walls, the small makeshift mattresses, the large bookshelf lining one of the walls. The window with sun beams streaming in, the candles along the wall providing light for the room. Images of her brothers came to her mind, Justin reading the dusty books, Max sleeping lazily on the bed. She tried pushing those images out of her mind, knowing that they most likely were not in the room at that time.

She said the spell aloud, suddenly not sure where to point the staff. Figuring it was her body that was teleporting she quickly turned the staff mid-air, pointing the curled tip towards herself to make sure the energy would hone in on her body. When the spell was complete, the energy erupted from the staff and encompassed her body.

The breeze that was hitting her body stopped and everything became substantially darker. Alex opened her eyes and noticed that she was indeed in her room back at the castle. The spell had worked.

"Alright," Alex exclaimed, "it worked!" She looked around the room and pointed the staff towards herself, ready to say the spell again. She stopped.

"Well, they didn't say I had to teleport back to the clearing," she said aloud to herself, "I guess my lesson is done."

Smiling, she headed over to her bed and flopped over on it, ready to take a well-deserved nap. A bright light encompassed her body, causing Alex to quickly shut her eyes against the blinding light.

"What's going on?" she yelled.

"You were supposed to teleport back immediately, we aren't done yet," Destanee said.

Alex opened her eyes and found herself back in the clearing. She frowned.

"I didn't think there was a counter spell to that," she said.

"It's not a counter spell, it's a spell to keep idiots in line," Wyne snapped, "now, have you memorized any other spells?"

"No," Alex admitted, readying her staff so she could look at the book again, "except for the higher level ones but apparently I'm not ready to do those yet."

"Anything involving the name 'Kazeban' requires higher energy which you haven't been given yet," Wyne said.

"Oh? How do I get this higher energy?" asked Alex, "Is it like, becoming a _full dragon magician_?"

"We'll tell you later when we deemed you worthy enough," replied Destanee, "now perform one more spell. You can use the book if you want."

Alex flipped through the book, looking for a spell that sounded most interesting. She would mouth the spells and if she decided against it, she said "no" and shook her head aloud, going on to the next spell.

Her dragon mentors became frustrated and told her to hurry up. It wasn't exactly getting late, but they had other, more important things to do.

"Aha, found one," Alex said, standing up straight and reading loudly, "take away the strength of my foe, and into victory I shall go."

Unfortunately her staff was pointed directly at herself. The energy shot through the staff and hit Alex's body full blown, causing a sudden weakness and paralyzing effect on her body.

"Nice job," Destanee said, rolling her eyes, "you now know how to paralyze yourself."

Alex lay still on the ground, having fallen over on her side. Soon after she felt her energy come back, the ability to move her muscles regained. Dazed, she stood up and tested her limbs, making sure she could still move them.

"That wasn't very long," Alex commented.

"It's long enough to take out and kill a stronger enemy," Zagir said, "or at least have time to run away. It works."

"Despite the second spell being a bit…wrong, I think you did pretty well for your first day," Destanee said, "go back and memorize some more of the non-Kazeban spells and we'll see you tomorrow. Same time, same place. Oh, and you can't take a staff with you. You'll only get one eventually when you prove you're worthy enough."

"Okay," Alex said, relieved at the prospect of being able to lie down on her soft bed again. She said a quick good bye to them before flying off towards the castle.

No one else was in the room when she arrived, so Alex figured her brothers were still at their training sessions. Hoping that the dragons wouldn't change her mind and teleport her back, Alex trotted over to her bed and flopped over, taking a small nap and anticipating her brothers' arrival later on.


	4. Justin's First Training Day

**A/N**: It's Justin's time for glory!

And then the next chapter will be focused on Max and Zeke.

* * *

Chapter 4: Justin's Training Day 1

The loud slamming of a door woke Justin up. He darted upright, still slightly dazed from his interrupted sleep and his gaze shot around the room, trying to figure out what was going on.

He panicked slightly when he noticed a large dragon sleeping nearby, Justin still thinking he was back in his room at home. The realization that he wasn't back home quickly came back to him and he relaxed a little, recognizing Max. When he didn't see Alex in the room, his panic rose again.

_Was that Alex leaving earlier?_ Justin asked himself, _what is she up to?_

Hoping that it was her leaving with her mentor, but not trusting the situation entirely, he decided to head out the door, hoping to catch up with Alex before she potentially caused any trouble.

He grabbed the handle of the door and slowly opened it, the doors hinges creaking very quietly as it was opened. A bright light shone from beyond the door, but it took everything Justin had to not swing the door wide open to see what was happening. He looked back and, noticing that Max wasn't waking up by Justin's departure, he slowly opened the door the rest of the way and went through it, shutting it behind him.

The bright light had completely disappeared when Justin entered the hallway. Looking both left and right, he didn't see any signs of another dragon, or any objects for that matter, in sight. Confused, he started walking down the path that Zeke took them the previous day.

Another bright light shone behind Justin, causing him to startle and whip around. A large, armored dragon suddenly appeared, a staff floating by his side. The newcomer gazed at Justin curiously.

"You must be the wizard dragon I'm supposed to train."

Justin didn't reply. He just looked at the dragon in awe.

"I teleported here as quickly as I could. I was going to get you up but it appears you've already been awoken. It's time for your training session. I'm Wajeeh, your mentor. Follow me."

Justin just nodded before following Wajeeh obediently. That was the first time he'd actually seen dragon magic first hand—except for that light back at the lair—and he was starting to wonder how powerful that magic could be. He shook his head of his thoughts and tried concentrating on following the army leader.

The line of candles seemed to go on infinitely as they traveled along. Justin looked into rooms with open doors and noticed that the rooms to his left were about equal size, all of them having the same adornments as the room he and his siblings were assigned to. They were walking the opposite direction from where he and his siblings came the day before and Justin started getting a eerie feeling in his stomach.

"Um, if I may ask, where are we going?" Justin asked, his voice coming out smaller and higher pitched than he intended.

"To the armory," Wajeeh said, "it's down the hall quite a ways. Instead of walking there, let's just teleport."

Wajeeh flipped his staff in the air and aimed it right between himself and Justin so that the energy would reach both of them when the spell was performed. He said a spell aloud and light burst from the staff, hitting both dragons and instantly teleporting them to the armory.

Justin had closed his eyes against the bright light and when he opened them, he widened them.

"Wow, there's a lot of weapons here," he exclaimed, looking around at the large room. It was about twice as big as the Russo Lair back home and all across the room there were rows and rows of tall shelves containing all kinds of different weapons and armor. They weren't labeled very well, the dragons seemingly preferring to put all the weapons in random places. Weapons on top of each other, some parts of shelves overfilled with weapons and other parts completely empty. Many of the weapons were covered in dust and others were so rusty they looked to be hundreds of years old.

Justin's claws make ticking noises along the rocky floor as he walked between the shelves. All these weapons brought back memories of when he was a monster hunter. He smiled at the thought, wondering what it would have been like if he had access to these kinds of weapons during that program.

Along the ceiling there were what appeared to be chandeliers lit up by orbs of light which Justin assumed were created via dragon magic. Two of the shelves were so close together, Justin had to fully extend his wings upward in order to walk through. Worried that the membranes of his wings might catch on something sharp, he decided to back out admire the weapons from the end of the aisle.

Wajeeh waited patiently near the entrance to the armory. He was only wanting to show Justin the armory and not give him any weapons or armor to work with just yet. That would be for a more advanced lesson. But it always seemed like a good idea to show recruits the weapons because it always excited them, enticed them on to do good in the preliminary training so they could advance in their warriorhood.

Soon Justin had taken a look at all the goods and eagerly approached his mentor.

"So, which ones do I get to choose?" he asked, "Any of them? The lightest ones? The ones on the bottom shelves?"

"None of them," Wajeeh said calmly, "you need to pass your preliminary training before you can start using any of these."

Justin frowned and whined, saying, "then why show me all of these awesome weapons?"

"Because I wanted to show you what you could have if you do well enough today," Wajeeh explained, "now, come. We shall commence the training."

Justin sat by Wajeeh, looking at his mentor expectantly. Wajeeh performed the teleportation spell again, transporting them to the forest.

They arrived in a clearing similar to the one Alex's training was held in, only it was slightly bigger. Justin looked straight up, seeing the sunlight glittering through the dense foliage of the surrounding trees, tiny birds chirping loudly and fluttering from branch to branch.

The middle of the clearing was far enough away from the trees that the branches did not reach out far enough to cast shadows on it, creating a pillar of light which shone brightly down, creating a circle of light on the ground.

"Alright, so first of all I want to see how your fighting skills are in general," Wajeeh said, "I've invited another dragon here that you can try fighting against."

Justin looked around for the other dragon, wondering how big it would be. He hadn't gotten quite used to his new body, but he was confident he would do fine.

_I've fought plenty of monsters before, this should be a piece of cake_, he thought, trying to shove all his doubts to the back of his mind.

The thundering sound of running footsteps reached their ears and soon a brilliant red dragon jumped into the clearing, quickly pulling her body back so that she wouldn't tumble into either Justin or Wajeeh.

"This is Inika," Wajeeh said, "one of our newest recruits."

Inika curtly nodded towards Justin while he greeted her, feeling somewhat strange for fighting a "girl." He reminded himself that she's actually a dragon and they probably don't have those kinds of rules or societal feelings here.

"Fight," said Wajeeh, heading to the edge of the clearing to watch the spectacle.

The tail hit Justin before he had any time to react, sending him towards a nearby tree. The hit wasn't hard enough to send him flying, but the surprise impact stunned him. When he recovered, teeth sank down into his front shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain. He swung his head around, attempting to grab his opponent, but she moved away too quickly.

Inika backed up to judge her opponent's next move while Justin looked over to Wajeeh. "I thought this was a practice run," he whined.

"It is," Wajeeh said, somewhat surprised, "are you afraid of a bit of pain?"

"No," Justin answered quickly, regretting that he ever showed these dragons any sign of weakness.

_I just panicked_, he reasoned with himself, _but now that I know this dragon's fighting style, I can counter it well, right?_

Another swing of Inika's tail threw Justin off balance, but this time he recovered faster, managing to avoid the bite that came next. Not confident in his ability to fly, Justin decided to rush the other dragon, hoping that his larger size would give him an advantage.

He leapt over to Inika, thinking that it was a glorious jump to victory. Instead, the pain in his arm caused him to land before the other dragon, opening himself to another attack. Arms swiftly raised over his head and pinned him down, the hot breath of his opponent rushing along the back of his neck as Inika's jaws closed over him.

Wajeeh frowned. "What was that? Inika took you out in what, two seconds? I'd expect that from one of our senior warriors, not a dragon who's only practiced for two days."

"Isn't it amazing how much someone can learn in two days?" Justin offered, receiving a growl from Wajeeh.

"Let him go, Inika," he said, "but I want to see him try again. This time, you make the first move, Justin. And you can go easy on him, Inika."

The red dragon released her grip from Justin's neck and sneered, backing up to let Justin up. Justin rose and glared at his opponent, trying to ignore the searing pain in his neck and arm.

_I hope my wounds don't get infected_, he thought, _I wonder how good their medicine here is?_

He lingered for a couple seconds, trying to regain his focus and balance. He knew he couldn't just leap at the other dragon and rely on brute force, so he decided on a more tactical measure.

He thought back to the guide book on monsters, the techniques monster hunters over the years had developed to deal with different kinds of monsters. Some monsters were strong and needed to be attacked from a distance. Others were small, quick, agile; hard to catch but easy to kill. Some you could fight without weapons, others you needed strong weapons in order to survive.

Of course, he had no weapons except his teeth and claws and those certainly didn't come in the monster hunter package.

_No long range attacks as a dragon, I don't even think I can breathe fire_, Justin concluded, _which is kind of bizarre, but I get I'll just have to go with brute force again._

He lunged forward, making sure to keep the weight off his right arm so he wouldn't stumble. The other dragon appeared to expect him to stumble and leapt forward herself, ready to dig her claws into the prone dragon.

They collided into each other and Justin quickly swung his head around to bite hard into Inika's shoulder. She yowled out and attempted to bite him but missed.

Justin gathered up all his strength and pushed Inika to the ground, keeping a hold on her shoulder, raising his right arm to hold her neck down. It didn't work as well as he planned, the other dragon's neck being so long as she was able to clamp her jaws down on Justin's arm again. It was all he could do not to yell out in pain.

Instead of backing up like his opponent wanted him to, Justin just tightened his grip on the other dragon, clenching his teeth to endure the pain, knowing that if he let go he would open himself up to another attack. Wajeeh yelled out for the two to stop and when he felt the teeth release from his arm, he loosened his jaws, the strong taste of blood in his mouth.

"That was much better," Wajeeh said, "still not great, but at least you were able to get a hold of Inika."

"I thought you were just a fool for coming at me like that again," commented Inika, "I didn't expect you to change your course of action so quickly."

"It is just your third day, Inika," her mentor consoled her, "you'll get better in the future."

Justin stared at the two dragons in disbelief. _Really? This dragon gets consoled for not being on top of things and I get insulted? _He sighed, realizing that as an outsider they would probably always be hard on him.

_Of course, I'm not going to stay here long_, he told himself, _just enough time to save the wizard world and then get back to Waverly Place and Juliet._

He smiled at the thought of his girlfriend, suddenly wishing she was here as a vampiric dragon so she could teach these two a lesson.

"I wonder if there are vampiric dragons?" he accidentally said aloud, his eyes widening when he realized the other two heard him.

"Vampiric dragons?" Wajeeh asked, "What has that got to do with anything?"

"N-nothing," Justin stammered, stepping back, "I mean, what do we have planned next?"

"I break, I suppose," Wajeeh said, "I'll heal your wounds so you two can duke it out a few more times. I don't feel like I have a good understanding of what level you are at, young wizard."

Justin frowned, not at all excited at the prospect of fighting once again. But it did sound like their wounds would be healed, so there wouldn't be any resulting infections, right?

He sat down and closed his eyes while his mentor worked his magic, healing the wounds completely and instantly alleviating all the pain Justin had felt. The sun warmed his body and, despite having a good night's rest, he suddenly felt drowsiness overcome him.

"Alright it's time for—are you falling asleep?" Justin's mentor asked.

Justin shot open his eyes, but his vision blurred a bit before coming into focus. He shook his head sheepishly, saying, "no, I'm fine." Although he had only known this dragon for a very short while, Justin still felt this intrinsic desire not to disobey or disappoint him. Just like he did with everyone who was in charge.

He and Inika fought a couple more times, both times Inika winning, but Justin putting up a decent fight against her. Wajeeh once again healed their wounds and determined that Justin needed a lot more training before he advanced.

"However, you do have the spirit of a warrior and the potential to become extremely efficient and powerful on the battlefield," he said.

Inika left while Wajeeh and Justin went out for a hunting break. After capturing their prey and eating their meals—Wajeeh somewhat surprised at how fast Justin was able to catch a deer—Wajeeh decided to train Justin in a less demanding way.

"I want to see how well you can maneuver through this forest. Most of the time you won't have the luxury of fighting enemy dragons in a clearing so you'll have to be quick and able to fight within the dense woods."

Justin nodded, readying his wings for flight. He still wasn't that good at flying, not having been able to practice while stuck in that tiny room all night, but he was able to take flight easily and started dashing through the forest.

The branches and leaves raced past him as he flew along, brushing against his wings and body. Thorns threatened to rip through his wing's membranes, but nothing could penetrate the tough scales that covered the rest of his body.

Wajeeh flew behind Justin, keeping an eye on his apprentice and barking out orders. Justin tried to follow each order—dive down into the undergrowth, land on a branch and double back, fly backwards, ascend upwards through the branches—and for the most part succeeded.

Except when a wyvern collided with him, but that was just a minor technicality.

"That's another thing you should know," Wajeeh said at the end of the session, "the places of all the species in this kingdom's hierarchy."

The two of them were sitting in the clearing once again, Justin sprawled out across the middle, basking in the hot sunshine. Although he wasn't planning on staying in Rackem, he was interested in hearing about its history and society. The more he could learn, the better.

"Dragons are at the top because we are the most powerful, wyverns are our servants, and all the rest are underneathe wyverns," Wajeeh said, "and of course our demigod is at the very top and it is said there are furry dragons but they are rare and are considered even higher than us scaly dragons."

Justin frowned. That was a short lesson and not as intriguing as he thought. So what if he was considered one of the "highest" species in this place? These dragons are still holding him and his siblings prisoners, forcing them to engage in activities they'd rather not do.

"It's late," the mentor said, pointing to the darkening sky, "I think you'd better head back."

Justin nodded, only too glad to having the training end for the day. It wasn't a complete failure of a training session, but he was looking forward to resting for the night.

"What are we going to do tomorrow?" asked Justin as the two arrived at the castle.

"You will see, no need to think about it," Wajeeh said, letting out a big yawn before leaving Justin's side.

Justin headed back to his room and noticed Alex resting on her bed. He entered quietly, sure to not wake her up, and waited for Max to arrive next. He really wanted to discuss his day with his siblings and see what course of action they should take next.


End file.
